Cold Break Stage Question

Might want to post this to the homebrewing forum: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/forums/homebrewing.8/

As an extremely amateur homebrewer, I don't think getting it cold rapidly is important. There's other, easier cooling methods. Go ask the people who know though : )

 

Cold crashing in a sink isn't a particularly good means of quickly cooling the wort. Most of us use chillers, such as an immersion or counter-flow.

That said, plenty of brewers don't bother quickly cooling their wort. I can't attest to the quality of the brew, as I'm in the chill quickly camp.

 

don't get too caught up with the rapid chilling of hot wort. it is fairly important, but there are a dozen other tasks that are more important.
you reduce the chance of infection mostly, because like any food the longer you are in the danger zone the more chance there is of spoiling bugs that can take hold.
you also slow and reduce the possibility of the formation of DMS.

a simple immersion chiller is all you need, and is usually one of the first DIY projects a homebrewer tackles.

commercial breweries use a plate chiller that can rapidly extract heat from hot wort, and they use pumps for everything as well. and they don't really go crazy trying to get the absolute fastest chill time, neither should you.
Cheers.

 

Welcome to the BA site and to the Homebrewing forum, geezen. Hang around as long as you'd like; we are friendly here.

Chilling fairly quickly is always my goal, and I use an immersion chiller. There are ways to use that chiller outdoors right where you brew (assuming that you brew outdoors) if carrying the 5-gallons of wort is difficult. Use a garden hose if you think your water is 70 degrees or lower, i.e. no sun shining on that hose. Otherwise, carrying to a sink for your chiller's water source is the only way that I know to do it.

 

Rapid chilling ... along with routine racking to a 2ndary and not imbibing while brewing ... is another one of many past conventional practices falling by the wayside in light of new techniques.

Some brewers make a hop addition after chilling to 50°F or more degrees below boiling for a 20 - 60 minute 'hop-stand.' Some Aussie brewers don't bother chilling at all!

One method to take the edge off a (covered) hot kettle is to spray its outside with cool water. Helps to stir the wort before covering.

Rinse.
Lather.
Repeat after which goto ice bath or get an immersion / plate chiller and be done with it.

 

Definitely need to invest in a wort chiller.

Commercial systems definitely take longer to chill than homebrew ice bath brews do. They still make good beer somehow.

Chilling fast isn't necesarily needed but it's one of the things that will work in your favor. Fast chilling times help reduce the risk of DMS (corn/vegetable). Boil for 60-90 minutes and this really is no worry.

 

I have a 50' stainless IC that takes 45 mins to chill 15 gallons. No DMS issues that I can detect. DMS can, and will be present if you're careless though. Immersion chillers are cheap to buy or build, and so so so worth it. I see a plate chiller in my future.

Regardless of what people say, the quicker you can chill the wort, the better off you'll be. But if it takes you an hour as a amateur home brewer, your beer will be just fine most of the time.

 

I just bought a 25' copper IC for $50 with tubes and faucet adapter. Chills to under 80 degrees in about 15 mins. Worth every copper penny

 

I just chill my wort in an ice bath, and change out the ice when needed. Works great for my own personal beer consumption. BUT, if you want a fast cold break for the sake of beer clarity, I would use a wort chiller. This works well for a beer that you'll want crystal clear in the glass, such as a pale ale, pilsner, lager, etc. I'll do this if I really want to impress someone with a clear beer, but most of the time I could care less if I get a good cold break or not.

From BeerSmith's site:

"Chilling your wort as quickly as possible after boiling will result in the coagulation of proteins, tannins, hop polyhphenols as well as bits of grain or hop matter from the wort. The stuff that falls out is called the “cold break” and it starts forming around 140F (60 C) as you chill your wort. An effective cold break does help promote both clarity and flavor stability in the finished beer. To do this you need a wort chiller such as a simple immersion chiller."

http://beersmith.com/blog/2014/10/01/improving-beer-clarity-and-finings-in-depth-part-3/

 

^ For all the good work BeerSmith has done for the sport of home brewing ... much of the advice proffered hasn't kept up with modern advances in process and technique.

 

So, are you saying it's wrong?

 

I can't speak for all commercial breweries, but the ones I've seen and in one case worked with use chillers that are very fast, i.e. they chill the wort that's moving through them at any given time, going from near boiling to pitching temps, very quickly. It's true that the time it takes to process the entire volume of wort is fairly long. But the big temperature drop happens quickly for the flowing portion of wort.

Are there breweries slowly chilling entire volumes (together) at once? I don't know. I don't know what kind of equipment that would be.

 

Real test is chilling to < 70*F...if your water isn't real cool, you'll have problems getting that last 10*F (even in 30 min).

 

As other people have said, chilling quickly allows cold break, helps clarity, and keeps the danger of contamination low. For me for the first 5 years of home brewing I did just fine getting an ice bath going in my sink and carrying my wort over there, stirring constantly (and carefully) while taking the temp until it was at 100F then pouring it into a glass carboy with about 1.5 gallons of cold water in it. Topping off with water would lead to wort being about 68 to 72 degrees.

What we do with our 3 barrel system is run the wort through a hop stand and then a filter, then through a plate chiller with cold water running through it. It cools the wort from about 190f to about 68F in about 4 seconds. We use a pump for this, of course. We pump oxygen through this newly cooled wort and then it goes right into the ferment container through the bottom where the yeast is already waiting.

 

Why is the real test chilling to below 70?

"If the wort is cooled slowly, dimethyl sulfide will continue to be produced in the wort without being boiled off; causing off-flavors in the finished beer. The objective is to rapidly cool the wort to below 80°F before oxidation or contamination can occur." - John Palmer: How to Brew, Chapter 7.4 Cooling the Wort.

 

Yes, St. Palmer is correct : )

70*F is more for the yeast, although there are a few styles where 80*F would be no problem. Not cooling off your wort sufficiently is asking for trouble.

 

Because for most styles, you want a temperature (well) below 70F before you pitch the yeast.

 

Rapid chilling was once conventional wisdom as was racking to a secondary and fly sparging.

Nowadays .. not so much.

- Brewers are getting great results with 20 - 60 minute hops stands by first chilling the wort to 160°F or so.
- Home brewers were advised routinely to use a secondary to get the beer off the yeast to prevent autolysis and improve clarity.
- Batch sparging is far faster than fly sparging and produce equally good results

... yet these techniques are still regularly recommended by BeerSmith.
There's nothing wrong with following BeerSmith's advice but it's not sacrosanct.